July 2019 Month-in-Review

July was a busy month, reading-wise and real life-wise, if not blog-wise.

I spent a (lovely) week and a half in Canada (Calgary and the Canadian Rockies) and came home to a mountain of work and deadlines.  Much of it remains to be done even though I will be traveling again much of August (albeit a good bit for work this time).

A couple heavy months of reading put me in a position to make a stunning announcement: I am at a zero net change in Mount TBR for the year!  Now all that is left is to make that TBR number go down.  I acquired 14 books, driven by two one-off trips to bookstores.  I finished 9 books—not just matching the 9 books I finished in June but making serious dents in a couple doorstoppers that I didn’t finish.  I added a new section this month.  On my second trip to the bookstore I “sold” (long story) a box of books.  Most I had already read, but I’m subtracting those I haven’t from Mount TBR (which is made up of all books I own but haven’t read).  I want to go through my Kindle and delete some books as well (my overall TBR count is also probably off because there are some books I don’t own inadvertently on my Goodreads).

Blogging, though, has been slow.  Unlike the last two summers, this summer I didn’t run a blog series.  I wouldn’t have five Every Day Should Be Tuesday posts to rank below if there weren’t five Tuesdays in July.  It has been a long, long time since I didn’t publish any Thursday posts.  It was a slow month, view-wise, which is probably normal sans blog series.  For some strange reason, October of last year was bizarrely slow at Hillbilly Highways.  Every month I have a little silent celebration when I pass that monthly number, usually pretty early in the month.  My second lowest month at Hillbilly Highways was my first.  Only a strong finish got July to my fourth lowest month.  Last week, though, was my best week at Hillbilly Highways in a long time.

August should be much the same, full of reading (and work) and light on blogging.  Things will pick up later this year (hopefully September, maybe later depending on how some things go in real life).

 

July Reviews

• The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy (Hillbilly Highways)
• Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames
• A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
• Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (Hillbilly Highways)

 

Top 5 Posts at Every Day Should Be Tuesday

• Why the MCU Phase 4 Will Fail . . . and What Marvel Should Do About It
• Kings of the Wyld is a Wild Ride
• June 2019 Month-in-Review and Mid-Year-in-Review
• Like a good doggo, A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World tries too hard sometimes
• Follow Every Day Should Be Tuesday on Social Media

 

Top 5 Posts at Hillbilly Highways

• Film: Smokey and the Bandit
• Life in the Mountains After Coal
• Music Monday: Colorado Kool-Aid by Johnny Paycheck
• Country Noir: The Orchard Keeper by Cormac McCarthy
• Music Monday: The Four Mooseriders of the Canadian Apocalypse (tie)
• Nonfiction: Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance (tie)

 

Books acquired

• A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
• Trails of a Wilderness Wanderer by Andy Russell
• Trapline Outlaw: Simon Peter Gunanoot by David Ricardo Williams
• Outrider of Empire: The Life & Adventures of Roger Pocock by Geoffrey A. Pocock
• Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
• Green River Rising by Tim Willocks
• The Moonshine War by Elmore Leonard
• Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard
• Unforsaken Hero by Sterling Lanier
• Conan the Rogue by John Maddox Roberts
• The Fallon Blood by Robert Jordan
• Valor by John Gwynne
• The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics by Kevin D. Williamson
• The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart

 

Books started

• Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
• A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
• Full Curl by Dave Butler
• Outlaw: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and the Renegades of Nashville by Michael Streissguth
• Trapline Outlaw: Simon Peter Gunanoot by David Ricardo Williams
• Malice by John Gwynne
• Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
• Valor by John Gwynne
• The Smallest Minority: Independent Thinking in the Age of Mob Politics by Kevin D. Williamson
• The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics by David Goodhart

 

Books finished

• Once Upon a River by Bonnie Jo Campbell
• Full Curl by Dave Butler
• A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher
• Outlaw: Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson and the Renegades of Nashville by Michael Streissguth
• Trapline Outlaw: Simon Peter Gunanoot by David Ricardo Williams
• The New Class Conflict by Joel Kotkin
• Malice by John Gwynne
• Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
• Valor by John Gwynne

 

Books discarded (unread only)

• The Typist by Caroline Taylor
• Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen
• The Holders by Julianna Scott
• The Crown of the Blood by Gav Thorpe
• The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon
• Redlaw by James Lovegrove
• Servant of the Underworld by Aliette De Bodard

 

Mount TBR Counter

• July: -2
• Year-to-date: +0